Survival after Autologous Transplantation to Treat Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma with a History of CNS Involvement, Bone Marrow Involvement, or Histologic Transformation.

Background: Patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who present with extra-nodal involvement or histologic transformation from low-grade disease have lower rates of survival after conventional-dose therapy. The impact of these features on outcomes after high-dose therapy with autologous transplantation was investigated.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the outcomes of 64 consecutive patients receiving autologous transplantation from 1995 to 2003 for the treatment of DLBCL. Variables considered were age, gender, histologic transformation, history of bone marrow involvement, history of central nervous system (CNS) involvement, time from diagnosis to transplant, number of pre-transplant regimens, chemosensitivity prior to transplant, conditioning regimen, year of transplant, and the use of peripheral blood or bone marrow stem cells. Survivals were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to test the significance of factors on survival. Univariate association between variables and survival were tested by the log-rank test. Correlation between variables was tested with Spearman’s rank coefficient.

Results: The median age at transplant among 64 patients was 53.5 years (17–74). The median overall survival was 3.3 years. Among these patients, 12 had a history of CNS involvement, 10 had a history of bone marrow involvement, and 12 had transformed from low-grade lymphoma. A Cox regression model suggested age <50 (log-rank, p=0.093), <2 regimens prior to transplant (log-rank, p=0.052), and the lack of BEAM as conditioning regimen (log-rank, p=0.019) as multivariate factors for survival. However, the use of BEAM was highly associated with older age (R^²= 0.42, p=0.001) and more prior chemotherapy regimens (R^²=0.24, p=0.054). A history of extranodal involvement, including prior CNS involvement (p=0.842) or bone marrow involvement (p=0.518), was not associated with lower survival by univariate analysis. No significant association was found between survival and a history of transformation (p=0.484).

Conclusions: A history of CNS involvement, bone marrow involvement, or histologic transformation is not associated with lower rates of survival among patients undergoing autologous transplantation for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma at our institution. Patients who present with such histories remain candidates for autologous transplantation.